We are up at 6.30am for our flight to Beijing. Ella Rundle's tour blog

It's a travel day which means we don't have a concert; most of the day will be taken up with getting to the next city. As usual there are a couple of stragglers/jet lag sufferers who get 'the phone call' at about 6.59- one minute before the coach leaves. Luckily they all make it onto...

Today was our second concert at Suntory Hall, and it promised to be a very special one. Yefim Bronfman was rejoining us to play the Tchaikovsky again, and fifteen extra orchestral players had arrived yesterday from London to swell the ranks for Stravinsky's complete Firebird ballet.

I awoke on Thursday with a slightly sore head. We'd had a great night in Roppongi, the area of restaurants and bars about 10 minutes' walk from our hotel; we met a nice Aussie chap and Japanese barman who were amazed to hear about our lives as musicians, playing the greatest music ever written in wonderful countries across the world. It is certainly an incredible thing, an orchestra, and...

Suntory Hall is one of the finest concert halls on the planet. Herbert von Karajan, who conducted in the celebrated 1960's Berlin Philharmonie hall that Suntory is modelled on, described it as "a jewel box of sound". He was right! The Tokyo hall opened in 1986, and was the first in Asia to use the 'vineyard' style seating, bringing the audience closer to the orchestra and improving...

I wish I could tell you I did something tremendously exciting with my last few hours in Osaka, but I can't. I lay in bed, aching slightly after the previous day's cycling exertions, and ate an orange and a banana. It's quite tricky eating lying down, I don't know how the Romans managed it all the time. I read a couple of Roald Dahl's superb short stories. Eventually I got up...

A free day! An all-too-rare treat on tour. Some people went off to Universal Studios in Osaka to scare themselves silly on rollercoasters. I would rather eat my own head (see the blog from our previous Japan tour). Others had a nice easy day in and around the hotel trying to rid themselves of the last remnants of jetlag. Myself, Gijs Kramers (viola), Tim Gibbs and Simon Oliver (bassi) went...

Despite the less than perfect room I slept pretty well, and woke on Sunday determined to continue my swimming regime. It was, tiny rooms aside, quite a posh hotel, and I was mildly horrified to learn that a swim would cost nearly £18. But it was an all day pass and there was a Jacuzzi and stuff, so I donned my trunks and did some suitably posh swimming (butterfly).

A most tedious, tiresome travel day. Four hours on a coach from Kaohsiung to Taipei airport. Nearly as long hanging around the airport due to a delayed flight to Osaka. The flight itself, then an hour-long, standing queue to get through the Japanese border. Bags to collect, another hour on coaches to the hotel, a wait to collect the room key and for a lift; finally, I reached the door to my room.

I don't know if it was the crazy Harry Potter lady or the jetlag, but something stopped me sleeping. I was in bed around midnight but lay awake for hours, unable to drift off. I watched a Leonard Bernstein documentary on YouTube. I read a book. I briefly considered going to the 24-hour gym. Finally, I drifted off to sleep around 5.30am.

I woke feeling remarkably refreshed, and made use of the hotel's pool before partaking of a lovely buffet breakfast. There was every food imaginable; Taiwanese noodles and dumplings, eggs and bacon, broccoli and beans, delicate pastries adorned with slices of Chinese gooseberries, cheeses and yoghurts, carrot juice and coffee. I mostly stuck to what I knew. Once sated, Richard Birchall (cello)...

The long flight to Hong Kong was a relatively pleasant one, with good food and decent movies to while away the hours. I watched a hard-hitting, fairly gruesome WWII movie, Fury, about a US tank commander whose mission was to keep pushing through Germany, taking towns and holding crossroads. It starred Brad Pitt, and as the story unfolded I noticed some very lovely horn playing on the soundtrack;...

Hello, and welcome to the Philharmonia Orchestra's Tour Blog! I'm Sam Burstin, in my tenth year as a viola-playing member of this amazing ensemble, and I've been asked to keep you updated with our news and views as we travel around Taiwan and Japan for the next two weeks. We're flying off to the Far East from Heathrow T3, touching down briefly in Hong Kong, before heading on to Taipei. ...

It's fair to say that I was feeling a tad hungover on Sunday, the effects of the previous night's Colombian celebrations deepening as the day went on. Thankfully, we didn't have much to do. In the morning we walked to a lovely local market where I met my English teacher-friend Magda, who kindly bought us fabulous, reviving fruit juices. Some of the main streets of Bogotá were...

We were back at high altitude, and didn't we know it! For those who rarely, or never, find themselves suddenly 2600 metres above sea level, it is quite a shock how hard even the simplest physical exertion becomes. I could see why athletes come to train in the mountains, as the aerobic capacity is seriously diminished. The great violist Lionel Tertis used to practice wearing an overcoat and scarf...

For the first time on this tour we awoke in the southern hemisphere. Peru's capital lies 12 degrees south of the equator, so technically it was suddenly spring! Lima's expansive cityscape was shrouded by low-lying white cloud, and the lack of sun and the presence of the nearby post-winter Pacific meant the air was quite cool. It was noticeably easier t0 breathe here than in Mexico City...

I find that the second full day after a long haul flight is often the worst in terms of jet lag, and this was no exception. After a fitful night's sleep I began the day with a group yoga session led by Gwen Fisher, my viola colleague. Some of the stretches were more achievable than others (seems to me that men have a distinct biological disadvantage in yoga!), but the gentle, friendly environment...

We touched down in Mexico City on Sunday evening after a long, tiring flight which had been made far more bearable by the excellent company of the British Airways flight attendants. They were very excited to have a famous orchestra on board, and were keen to come and hear us play. Almost all seven concerts of this Latin America #philharmoniatour are already sold out, but Assistant Personnel...

Hello! Welcome to the Official Philharmonia Orchestra Blog of our Latin America tour with Maestro Ashkenazy, or #OPOBOOLATWMA for short (or, I suppose you could follow the actual hashtag #philharmoniatour as well). It's been quite a while since the orchestra headed to this part of the world, and for many it's a first trip there, so there was a tangible sense of excitement at Saturday's...

Dear Readers, you will be delighted to learn that I learned my lesson from the previous Friday's flight fail, and arrived at Heathrow last Sunday in exceedingly good time to catch our plane to Madrid. In fact, one could say that my travelling group of upper strings were probably a tad over-cautious, arriving as we did almost before check-in had even opened. But better safe than sorry! Frankie...

The second part of our pan-European tour began on Friday 13th. We were due to be flying from Heathrow to Zurich at some ungodly hour for a concert in Lucerne, and for this blogger things went far less than smoothly.

Hello, and welcome to another Philharmonia blog! I'm Sam Burstin, a viola player with the orchestra since 2005, and regular tour blogger. This month we're performing in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and England with our Principal Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and I'll be describing the most impressive and interesting sights and sounds as we go.

I'm writing from our plane home, which is currently 36,000 feet over the top of Norway; the view is magical. The snowy white land is bathed in the glow of a setting sun, which we have been chasing since we took off from the land in which it rises nine and a half hours ago. When we arrive back in London in two and a half hours' time, we shall have succumbed to darkness, the sun having...

My plan for the rest of the tour was to stay up late and rise late, thus resetting the body clock back towards European time, or at least trying to. The coaches for Saturday's concert in Yokohama, an hour south of Tokyo (and the venue for the 2002 Football World Cup Final), were to leave at 1.45pm, so I rose around 1 and went and bought a banana and a blueberry yoghurt for breakfast. I figured...

Friday lunchtime saw the launch in Japanese of the Philharmonia's awesome app, the Orchestra. I met Nate in the lobby and we took the red Marunouchi line to Ginza, an enormous shopping district in central Tokyo, walked about half a mile to exit A12 and popped out, blinking, into the sunny street. Across the road was a shiny cuboid building with a rotating, once-bitten apple on the roof. I...

Thursday saw the first concert of the tour in Tokyo, which was great for two reasons; there was no travelling during the day, which meant time for some sightseeing; and the hall we were playing in that evening was one of the most amazing structures I've ever seen.

One of the wonderful things about touring the world is experiencing different cultures; the food is a big part of that. Bento boxes are like a packed lunch, with rice or noodles, dumplings, some meat or tofu, maybe some funky vegetables or some other unidentifiable product (see bento B at the Robot place!).

We were quite sorry to be leaving Sapporo, with its fantastic hall, great beer and frankly awesome snow. But Tokyo is a city like no other, and as we took off for the capital, on a surprisingly large plane, I began to reminisce about previous visits.

I'll not lie, it was took quite an effort to drag myself out of bed on Sunday morning, as I'd had more Guinnesses the night before than hours of sleep! But after a quick shower I packed and headed to the lobby with a sense of purpose. I was forgoing breakfast for a walk under a cold, cloudless sky, and headed towards the Motoyasu River and the Peace Memorial Park.

I awoke on Saturday around five feeling remarkably refreshed. The previous night's swim had clearly done the trick, and after a hearty buffet breakfast I felt ready for anything. Which was good as we had a long day ahead of us.

Hello, and welcome to the Philharmonia's Japan Tour 2013 blog! My name is Sam Burstin, I've been a viola player in the orchestra for seven years, and a few months ago I was writing to you from the USA; blogging topics (blogics?!) included pizza, Jimi Hendrix and the Presidential Election. This time it's more likely to be sushi, Stravinsky and Six Nations Rugby!

Hello, and welcome to the new Philharmonia blog! My name is Sam Burstin, I've been a violist in the orchestra since 2005, and I'm honoured to have been asked to relay to you the sights, sounds, stresses and stories from our tremendously exciting tour to the Unites States of America, for which we leave on Monday (stormy Sandy permitting!).

Luke Whitehead writes: How to describe the Three Choirs Festival... It's a little like a week on tour and a little holiday rolled into one. It's now day three of the festival, which this year is being held in Hereford, and after a VERY early rehearsal for this evening's concert, I'm sitting in the glorious sunshine on my campsite (my chosen accommodation for this year's festival)...

Soong Choo writes: After a gentle stroll around central Seoul I took a smaller group to a Buddhist Temple food restaurant and had a feast. Made me think it wouldn't be a bad thing being a monk, but then I do like my meat so maybe not.

Soong Choo writes: We are flying to Seoul today.
Got up and felt really good this morning, slept six hours straight for the first time in days.
Finally beat the jet lag (hope I haven't spoken too early), which is just as well as I am really looking forward to Seoul for many many reasons but above all, it's the food if truth be told.

Michael Fuller writes: Yes, Richard, I have also often contemplated the mysterious power of "the handbag", an item that to us men seems to only serve the practical purpose of carrying things around from point "A" to point "B" but to women around the world seems to have acquired an almost-mystical power. Yet however much I ponder this phenomenon (particularly after an exhausting day being dragged...

Richard Birchall writes: For those of us without Chinese wives, this week so far has been one long and very entertaining game of charades; on European tours it's usually possible to dredge up some long-lost vocabulary from the hazy memories of school and muddle through (often receiving a condescending smile or weary sigh and a response in English), but here the language (and alphabet) barrier is...

Michael Fuller writes: We're off to Shanghai today from Guangzhou, and I have to give special props to my lovely wife Lulu and her peerless Mandarin speaking skills. After a major foul-up at the check-in desk in Guangzhou, where the flight was overbooked, boarding passes were assigned to the wrong people, and passports temporarily disappeared, Lulu was the only one able to communicate with all the...

Richard Birchall writes: Thanks Mike! I'm delighted to join the blogging team, and glad the lower
strings are now in charge...! To pick up where we left off: our first
concert of the tour was on Saturday afternoon at the Hong Kong Cultural
Centre (the main arts and performance venue for the island), and we were
greeted by a full house - always a good way to start! The programme of
Haydn's C...

Michael Fuller writes: We've just arrived in Hong Kong to kick off our Far East Tour with Lorin Maazel. Over the next 10 days we'll be playing here as well as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul, Korea. My wife Lulu (in our first violin section) and I have arrived a couple of days early to enjoy some extra time in this most vibrant of cities before our concert on Saturday. It seems there's certainly...

Gijs Kramers writes: Right, we just got to Bupapest. Glorious day here, nice and crisp which is just what we need since this moring the alarm clock went off at 5.15. Ouch! Yesterday we rehearsed Beethoven's Eroica symphony and Pohjola's Daughter, a great piece by Sibelius about a Finnish guy who has to fulfill an arduous assignment in order to get closer to an unbelievably beautiful woman...

Sam Burstin writes: Hello! We're Sam Burstin and Gijs Kramers from the viola section - welcome to the Philharmonia's new Beethoven Blog! We've been given the honour of describing the magnificent journey the orchestra is embarking on through the works of arguably the greatest composer who ever lived, Ludwig van Beethoven. Our Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Esa-Pekka Salonen...

Michael Fuller writes: Last night was the final concert in our Mahler cycle with Lorin Maazel, and we finished it in grand fashion, with Mahler's colossal Eighth symphony. It is surely Mahler's most ambitious work, and the promoter for the premiere in 1910 coined the term 'Symphony of a Thousand' due to the massive forces involved- 8 vocal soloists, 2 mixed choirs, 1 children's choir, and an orchestra...

Simon Oliver writes: Mahler's Ninth Symphony is not normally linked to feelings of joy and happiness. After our performance on Saturday night however, I found myself very joyful indeed. On cloud nine even. Earlier in the evening on the Royal Festival Hall stage while looking around the orchestra during the performance, I had been profoundly inspired at the commitment shown on each of the Philharmonia's...

Michael Fuller writes: After kicking off our London concert season on Sunday, we're ready to dig in to the final concerts of our Mahler cycle with Maestro Maazel. It was good to see the Maestro on the podium again last night in rehearsal after our marathon patch of work this past Spring. We played a rocking Mahler 6 concert in Turin, Italy, in early September, but besides that we haven't worked...

Michael Fuller writes: This weekend we travelled into the north country for the final two concerts in this first part of our Mahler cycle with Maestro Maazel. It has all gone by so quickly, yet our concert in Manchester seems like such a long time ago! In the seven weeks since our first rehearsal we've performed 7 symphonies in 25 concerts in 16 cities across the UK, Germany, France and Luxembourg....

Simon Oliver writes: The last concert on our tour of Europe was a triumph. It was one of the best performances of Mahler's Fifth Symphony I've done. Everything seemed to be right. The concert hall in Essen had a wonderful acoustic and it was full to the rafters! The orchestra had a free afternoon so was well rested, and it was the last performance of the tour which gave it a true sense of occasion....

Michael Fuller writes: Today is the final day of our German tour...over the weekend we've been crisscrossing up and down the country, going from Stuttgart to Bremen to Mannheim and finally to Essen. Those who have a knowledge of German geography will realize that these cities are all in very different parts of the country! Planning tours like this is extremely complicated logistically, and trying...

Michael Fuller writes: Last night we performed Mahler's First Symphony in Bonn to a packed audience at the Beethovenhalle. The concert was being filmed for later broadcast on German TV, so there were cameramen and crew members crawling all over the place! It was also a special occasion because yesterday it was the hundredth anniversary of Mahler's death. While counting bars of rests during the concert...

Simon Oliver writes: It was a fairly small stage last night. The concert hall in Hamburg is a beautiful one, but not that spacious for us basses. The positioning of some instruments in a symphony orchestra is a topic much discussed at the moment. What can prove to be difficult on some occasions, is to find yourself up really close to loud instruments in such massive works, such as last night's Mahler...

Michael Fuller writes: It was so good to come back home to London on Sunday night and have a
day to recharge before heading off on tour again. But all those nice
feelings evaporated when my alarm went off at 4:30 this morning and I
realized how long it would be before we have another day off!

Simon Oliver writes: We have just got back from Paris! The first part of the trip has been a great success all round and we now have one day to rest before we fly out to Germany on Tuesday. Paris was lovely but, my word, really expensive! I had an apple juice in a cafe not far from the concert hall and it cost me 9 euros! What's that about?

Michael Fuller writes: Next stop on our tour is Paris, so this morning we're taking the train from Luxembourg after a nice two-day stint here. Having more than one day in any city is a luxury for the Philharmonia on tour and three days in Paris is even better! What's more typical is what we'll doing in Germany next week, which is seven concerts in seven days in seven different cities. But no need...

Simon Oliver writes: It's very early in the morning. To be honest, it's 2:40am! A couple of hours ago we ended our first concert on this tour and I'm pleased to report it went really well. Nothing is more satisfying for us than ending a concert with an audience giving a standing ovation and this is exactly how they responded to our performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony tonight.

Michael Fuller writes: We're off on tour today, so that means up at 6:30, catching the train from London Bridge station down to Gatwick Airport for a charter flight to Luxembourg. After grabbing a double sausage McMuffin in a slightly guilt-ridden homage to my American roots, it's a short flight to the Continent (fortunately for my legs). Then we'll have a little time this afternoon for lunch and...

Simon Oliver writes: Last night we performed Mahler's Symphony No. 3. Being the only work in the programme, the performance started at around 7.30pm and ended at 9.30pm, with no interval! What a phenomenal work it is and all the forces involved, Maestro Maazel, the Philharmonia, the mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly, the Philharmonia Voices and the Tiffin Boys Choir, gave a monumental performance! I...

Michael Fuller writes: When I got home from playing Mahler's Fifth last night in the Royal Festival Hall, I was still charged with energy after playing this incredible music. I thought there was a lot of spontaneity that Maestro Maazel brought to the performance tonight, taking time in certain places that he hadn't done before. There were some spots in the third movement where he got the strings...

Simon Oliver writes: Today we are performing Mahler's Fifth Symphony in the newly-refurbished Butterworth Hall at the Warwick Arts Centre in Coventry. For the Philharmonia it's very important we travel around the country, bringing our world-class conductors to people who can't get to hear us at the Royal Festival Hall. We have residencies in Basingstoke, Bedford, Leicester and, from November this...

Michael Fuller writes: In the last week we made a huge shift from the dark psychological landscape of the Sixth Symphony to the child-like naiveté of the Fourth. There's such a strong contrast between those two pieces, but what's amazing is that they are both completely Mahler. His voice comes through so clearly in both symphonies, even though the content is worlds apart. I guess that's one of...

Simon Oliver writes: We are on the road again, this time it's off to Bristol playing Mahler Symphony No. 4 at Colston Hall. In the car for the journey, again driven by Matt Gibson (thanks Matt!), is bass player Gareth Sheppard who joined the Philharmonia back in 2009. I thought I'd ask him a few questions on how he is finding his new life in the Orchestra.....

Mike Fuller writes: Today we hopped on the train down to Basingstoke, one of our UK residencies, for a repeat performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony. I really enjoyed tonight's performance, and I thought we played with even more abandon than we did on Tuesday in the Royal Festival Hall. One of the reviews from that concert said that in the final movement "the orchestra produced a sound of almost...

Mike Fuller writes: It's the hottest day of the year so far in London, brilliant sunshine, bright blue skies, just a perfect day. What could be better then playing Mahler's Sixth Symphony, possibly his darkest, most tortured work! Ok, so maybe the weather and today's concert isn't a perfect match, but once the concert starts, we're hoping to create the right atmosphere so the...

Mike Fuller writes: I agree wholeheartedly with your last post, Simon. The more I gain experience, I realise that there is something in me that 'knows' when we've done a great performance. It's some combination of my mind judging what is happening as we play (such as whether a particular passage was in tune or together) and also my emotional response to the music that's all around me. Now of course...

Simon Oliver writes:
After reading some critics' responses after our performances of Mahler's First Symphony this week, it reminds me how personal a live concert can be. The result, one reviewer gives a performance a five-star rating and another has the opposite opinion! Fair enough, but what bothers me is the inaccuracies. For the concert on Tuesday, one reviewer stated that two of our principal...

Mike Fuller writes: Before the concert I walk down to the Festival Hall lobby and there is a special buzz in the air. The terrace is packed with people enjoying the sun and a fantastic view of the Thames, anticipating the first London concert of the Philharmonia's Mahler cycle. Backstage the orchestra is focused- every concert is important, but tonight you can really sense that everyone wants...

Simon Oliver writes: Last night we had our first rehearsal with Maestro Lorin Maazel and it showed just how great this Mahler symphony cycle is going to be! Instant connection between the maestro and the orchestra with some great music making from the opening bars. He is very clear and precise in what he wants and is a superb communicator.